Background
Young was born on September 22, 1800 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Alexander and Mary (Loring) Young. His father was a well-known printer.
clergyman minister antiquarian
Young was born on September 22, 1800 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Alexander and Mary (Loring) Young. His father was a well-known printer.
Young graduated from Harvard College in 1820.
On finishing his brilliant career at the Harvard Divinity School in 1824, Young entered at once on his pastorate at the New South Church on Church Green in Boston (ordained, January 9, 1825), where he remained for nearly thirty years, vindicating the confidence reposed in so young and inexperienced a clergyman.
He was a typical Unitarian of that period, neither radical nor reactionary. He soon came to hold positions of honor in the community, serving as an overseer of Harvard College (1837-1853) and as corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society. During his pastorate he printed a dozen eulogies on eminent and wealthy Bostonians, and from time to time contended in print that "evangelical Unitarianism" would benefit also the "poor and unlearned. " In 1831-1834 he issued The Library of the Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, witnesses to his own great library and his profound learning. But his tastes were antiquarian, and the fruits of his study can still be seen in his Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth from 1602 to 1625 (1841), and his Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay from 1623 to 1636 (1846). These works still hold their own as reprints of source material, with many critical comments. He planned a similar work on Virginia.
A reviewer of the first work, "C. D. ," proved to be Charles Deane, with whom he contracted a life-long intimacy. They came together daily at the Old Corner Book Store of the publishers Little & Brown, meeting there George Livermore, Jared Sparks, Charles Sumner, Edward A. Crowninshield, James Savage, George Ticknor, and occasionally Longfellow. They discussed rare books like the Dibdins' and those printed at Walpole's Strawberry Hill Press, and indeed the whole range of literature, as well as current events. Young was devoted to James Savage, then issuing notes to Winthrop's History of New England and a Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, and read often Savage's quaint footnotes in the Winthrop. He loved also Boswell's Johnson and contended that it should be read every year. Izaak Walton's philosophy he made his own. Young died in Boston, survived by his wife and eight of their children.
Young was gifted as a preacher, kindly, grave, and rather stern in his bearing. Those who heard him in the pulpit commended his sound thinking, his scorn of theatrical methods, and his power of voice, as well as energy of manner. He was short and stocky, with broad face and up-standing hair.
Quotes from others about the person
Of Young it was said that "few were more fond of anecdote, or could tell a better story . His wit and humor had the true flavor, like the bouquet of choice wine".
Young was married on November 1, 1826, to Caroline James and had twelve children.